Friday morning I popped into my local Petro-Canada and picked up a $25 iTunes gift card. I had needed to make some purchases in the App Store for a review I’m working on for another site, and have been trying to avoid the use of credit cards as best I can lately. In my mind the gift card was the perfect choice. How wrong I was.
No matter how I tried, I couldn’t get my purchases to deduct from my gift card funded iTunes store credit! Having never used an iTunes gift card before, I assumed I had to be doing something wrong. I contacted Apple Support. Here’s what they had to say;
“I have an understanding that you are trying to pay your unpaid iTunes purchase with the store credit that you have recently added to your account. I am sorry to hear that you have not been able to use your store credit to do this, and I know that you must be anxious to know why.
Due to tax laws and commerce restrictions for software in Canada, customers residing in Canada may only purchase games and applications using a credit card. This is not a decision that Apple has made, but one that Canada law dictates and we do apologize that we are unable to offer this ability to our Canadian customers.
Since this unpaid purchase was an iTunes application, this would be the reason why you were unable to pay for it with store credit.”
While I understand that Canadian law is at fault and not Apple, I’m still flabbergasted that this information isn’t provided on the card. Let me give you the summary in plain English: you can’t buy Apps with an iTunes gift card.
So now I’m out 25 bucks. Anyone have any music recommendations for me to spend it on?
While this is obviously a pain in the ass for you, gift cards are apparently a work-around for Canadian iTunes users wanting to access the US iTunes store. This wouldn’t be of so much interest for apps, but for digital content. I gather you set up a new account, associate it with a gift card and specify an American address (iTunes uses your credit card details to determine what country you’re in, apparently).
I’ve never tried this, but have seen several successful reports on the web about it.
That only works if you have a US iTunes card. That being said, there is a great workaround that I’ve used. I have both a US and Canadian iTunes acct, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ll make sure to post it up this week so that everyone else can enjoy.
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Yeah, I found this out the hard way as well, only I bought myself a $50 gift code from iTunes. It’s definitely annoying, as I buy about half and half Apps vs Music these days.
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Megan Joy is awesome. Buy all her stuff
This is absolutely RIDICULOUS! I just spend 100 dollars on an itunes gift card. This is CRAZY. Someone should file a lawsuit against Apple, NO WHERE ON THE CARD DOES IT SAY THAT IT CANNOT BE USED FOR APPS! That’s RIDICULOUS! So many people are losing so much money.
And I don’t even get my music off itunes because the quality is so garbage. 256 kbps does not cut it for me.
Well, I was able to use the card to purchase a movie. I have $12.06, sitting in an account that won’t let me use the remaining amount. So it’s not just games and apps that are screwed. You’re gonna have problems buying music and video too Sweet little trick Apple!! If the card works you have to use it all. Geeze, sounds like a huge “point” FOR microsoft. Can’t remember them pulling an international sales scam/sales and marketing fraud like this before. Not to mention Apple hasn’t even tried to resolve the issue. Apple has never been easy for Canadians.
KRistina - It may not say on the card, but Apple has covered themselves in this situation. You know that agreement that everyone just agrees to with out reading? Right in that it says that Canada can only purchase apps using a credit card.
I’ve been pursuing this issue for some time. The Canadian Minister of Industry (Hon. Tony Clement) has stated in a letter to my MP and myself that he is unaware of any Canadian laws preventing me from using iTunes store credit for purchasing apps. See his letter here:
http://www.jimwhitelaw.com/2009/09/itunes-credit-in-canada.html
I doubt very much any such law exists. Case in point is PSN (Playstation Store). You can buy Sony Store gift cards and download games / apps IN CANADA. So if this law exists it must only pertain to Apple. ie. Apple is full of crap blaming the gov!!!!
Anyone have any more info ?
It all boils down to the fact that Apple does not want to have to pay the Canadian taxes. That is it, plain and simple! I know this from my sister working for Apple (through a temporary service), and it is taught in training classes to state that it is “due to international tax laws”, which it really is. If it is phrased that way, it is not a lie. Apple does not want to pay the taxes for the apps, and the don’t want to alienate their customer base by being honest with them.
Let me give you a little more information: many, many Apple agents are employees of temporary agencies, working in call centers that are full of nothing but temp workers. They are required to take 3-4 chats at a time. When you answer one of the surveys after a chat, email, or phone call, anything less than 4, out of a scale from 1-5, can get the agent fired. If you state that you hate Apple policy and give a “Meets Expectations” or lower on any section of the survey, it is counted against the employee. Apple does not care if you place in the notes that you loved the agent but are unhappy with Apple’s policies. They are so concerned with their JD Edwards standing that they don’t give a crap about all the temporary workers they have through Volt and Kelly Services, and other agencies!
Not JD Edwards, but JD Powers.
“Due to tax laws and commerce restrictions for software in Canada, customers residing in Canada may only purchase games and applications using a credit card.”
I suspect this is bull—t. I have tried to find any kind of legalese preventing the sale of applications or games using a giftcard and there isn’t any. Not that I could find. What’s more: other companies such as Sony and Microsoft sell application and games for their consoles (X360, Ps3, PSP) using Gifrcards in Canada, no problem. So… this throws the ball squarely in Apple’s court.
No tax laws in Canada or any commerce restriction force them to do this.
It’s just Apple not wanting to lose some more potential profit by switching to gift cards. Let’s face it, gift cards that are 20$ wil leave you with 20$ to use in the App. store and a useless card that cost nothing in the end. Apple loses money making these cards and codes. Since Apps are popular (Because let’s face it, in total, more people buy albums/music or download them illegally) and hard to get illegally (you have to crack your iPod/iPhone and download them from rare-to-find places), there’s also more incentive for people to buy Apps from the iTunes store than buy music from there. There’s nothing in Canada preventing Apple to do this kind of thing, but I’m thinking that in the US and UK, there is, as people there can buy Apps with gift card credit. I say take their a.sses to court and and force them to make it like in the US. Add a law to prevent Apple from doing this.
I suspect credit card companies may also pay them well to force people to use credit cards. But that seems a little far-fetched…